I guess I felt entitled to a little bit of indulgence, since I had taken a stab at chipping away at my stack of reading. I’ve read less than half a book and skimmed another, though: progress which definitely does not justify my purchase of two more books this afternoon. I was in Barnes & Noble searching for a book the University bookstores didn’t carry that I need for research on a final paper and I succumbed to the temptation of Rushdie and Keillor.
I know.
So, on my way home from the bookstore, books in hand and tail between legs, I came up with a set of goals for spring break, which starts officially in a few weeks and practically Monday afternoon when I finish my last class and move to reading week and finals.
And here they are.
A Set of Goals for Spring Break
Give my apartment a thorough shakedown. I’ve been so busy lately that my feeble efforts to combat the clutter are failing pretty miserably. I need to clean out my massive mail pile, recycle my collection of old newspapers, do a bunch of laundry, vacuum, mop, the works.
Read three more books. This entails finishing the book I’ve started and removing three more from my reading list. I can tell you right now, the three I tackle will most likely be this one, this one, and this one.
Finish Super Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario. And get some work done on Zelda. I’m behind the times, I know, I know.
Cook a lobster loaf. And while I’m at it, write out the history of my logo/emblem/blog name. It’s pretty boring, but it lets me draw stupid pictures, so it’s worth a blog post of its own.
There you have it. I’ll let you know how it goes.
This photo is in honor of the birth of Wanda Sykes, exactly 44 years ago.
It makes sense. Just trust me on this one.
No matter what you try to tell me, the little men in my head have decided that it’s finally spring and my mood today reflects that proclamation. I feel great today.
For starters, I have a new favorite song. Not an all-time favorite song, mind you – Madonna still has that market cornered for me. I just have a new song of the moment. I bought Brandi Carlile’s most recent album The Story yesterday after “Turpentine” was playing on the radio when I woke up, and I’ve been listening to that song ever since. Take a listen in a background window while you read the rest of this entry, and you will be afforded a multidimensional sensory image of my current state.
Another great thing about today, aside from the bright sun and the thirty-five degree weather, was something that happened to me at the Rock as I was coming out of my first English class on the way to my second. I generally ignore whoever’s out there when I pass by – they’re trying to get me to sign up for their club or come to their event or do something else I have no interest in – but today, there were dueling causes. One kid was sitting at his dinky little table trying to sell baked goods for the benefit some human rights protest somewhere. I can’t be sure. He didn’t even have a sign.
Listen to this in the background while you look at today’s photo. I named the photo after the album this song is from, and for whatever reason it just works really well for me.
This is some building in Manhattan. Somewhere in Midtown. I was wandering around and I thought the spheres were really interesting, so I snapped a few photos before being told to skedaddle by some security guard. It was the day of some sort of protest – I forget what was being protested at the time – so he probably mistook me for a Hooligan ™ or something.
Anyway, I love the photo, and I love the song you should be listening to right now if you’ve followed my instructions. The sound quality of the YouTube video is pretty crappy, but if you like it you can buy the album here. Yes, you read that properly. I suggested that you purchase music if you like it. I think I’m part of a dwindling minority of my generation that would rather pay for music than hit up the Pirate Bay. But that is a topic for another day.
If you like cats want to laugh really hard, take a look at the World’s Heaviest Harness pool on Flickr. I’m still giggling.
I wish I weren’t stage managing this quarter. I’m having fun with the Tattoo Girl process, and I’m looking forward to getting started on the Bacchae, but I miss my evenings off.
If I still had my evenings off, instead of having chicken nuggets and hasty salads and hot pockets for dinner before running to rehearsal at 5:30, I would cook everything on the Eat Yet? blog. Everything. Their most recent recipe for warming winter squash looks like just the thing I need to pull me out of my “Is it really snowing AGAIN?!?!??” funk.
I think I will be attempting their red velvet cupcakes on Thursday, to bring to rehearsal for Valentine’s Day. There is a scene in Tattoo Girl in which something or other is described as a “red velvet map”. Since we blocked that scene we’ve all been craving red velvet cake. It’s time to satisfy the craving.
In other news, I’m still smarting over Ingrid Michaelson’s having been denied even a Grammy nomination. There must be some reason for it that I’m missing. Maybe her album came out in the wrong month. Maybe it’s just deep magic from the dawn of time. Whatever the reason, I’m still bummed about it.
Beyonce + Tina Turner + Rollin’ on the River = the best duet I could have asked for.
I’m bummed that Amy Winehouse didn’t end up making it to the U.S. for the show. Not only would I have liked to see her perform live (as opposed to live via satellite), but it also would have been cool to see her accept an award. I would’ve liked that very much.
I haven’t been following the Grammy saga – I just found them channel flipping. But I sure hope Ingrid Michaelson’s up for something. I sure do love Ingrid Michaelson.
Also, a small part of my mind is seriously considering a transfer to some university in Hawaii. I am perfectly willing to trade the prestige of my Northwestern degree for a frostbite-free existence. Not sure how the parental units might feel about that one, but… I’m sure it’d be cheaper! That’s something, right?
Also, back to the Grammys, they just turned the “stop talking, asshat” music on for Kanye West, and he flat-out told them to turn it off.
And they did.
-@
[update: The Grammy Awards hereby win the Abby Award for best random duet combinations. Alicia Keys and John Mayer just rocked my apartment down to the ground. And Vince Gill just called Kanye out on his arrogant crap during his acceptance speech. These awards are awesome. I'm so pleasantly surprised!]
As you may or may not know, I bought myself a keyboard for Christmas. This one, to be exact:
It’s got keys. It’s got buttons. It’s got a plug. It’s everything I need in a keyboard, considering the fact that I took maybe a year of piano lessons when I was little and the only things I can remember how to play are a little dinky polka and “From a Wigwam”, which is from this book, which we had in our piano bench when I was little.
Anyway, I’ve had this keyboard for a few weeks now and every time I walk by it, perched on four milk crates with a cheap barstool-style chair next to it, I feel a little pang of guilt because I play it as rarely as I suspected I would when I hesitantly clicked “Confirm order” all those weeks ago. I have a learn-to-play piano book and everything, which really exists to help me learn to read music. I can read the treble clef pretty well, from choir in high school, but I have trouble with the bass clef.
But like most “Learn to Play an Instrument!!” books, the first few chapters are boring as all hell. So I was in a piano doldrums for a while.
For a while, that is, until I had a Brilliant Piano-related Insight. I checked the Googles for “mario sheet music” and BAM, I was in business.
I haven’t tackled the main theme (you know, doodoodoot, doodoot, DOOT, doooot, DOOT doot doot, doot DOOT doodoot doodooDOODOOdooDOOdoodooDOOdoot…) yet, as I’m still kind of pianotarded, but my Super Mario Bros. Underwater Theme – which, musically, is substantially simpler and easier – is coming along rather nicely:
… only not at all. That’s some clip I found on YouTube. My Underwater Theme is much, much further underwater than that one. It’s about four times slower than that and much less confident, and I still can’t play the left hand part and the right hand part at the same time. But the point is, it’s motivating me to actually play the darn thing, so it’s enough for me. So far.
There are lots of cool clips up there of random people playing random bits of Mario music on random instruments. It’s worth checking out.
Real update to come later this evening maybe, but seriously, first, go here. Some dude did some thing and amalgamated the World’s Most Wanted Song and the World’s Most Unwanted Song.
We interrupt your daily grind to give you news on two very important subjects.
For starters, as of about 10:20 this morning, I am officially done with the Dental Epic upon which I embarked in September. Eighty jillion appointmens and nineteen gazillion dollars later, I’ve got a clean-ish bill of dental health and I don’t have to stop by 820 Davis again until March, ignoring the fact that I walk by the building every day on my way to school.
The other piece of important news is the fact that I found the YouTube of the American Idol segment I was laughing so hard about last night. Ladies and gentlemen, here it is:
It starts to get good around 3:15, when Randy and Paula start getting into it and dancing along at the table, and it only has up to go from there. Around 5:15 is where I completely lost it.
I could watch this video seventeen times a day and probably never stop laughing. Oh, Paula, you’re my favorite drunk TV bitch!
They’re the paper things you bake muffins or cupcakes or whatever in, right, only they’re made of silicone so you can wash and reuse them, plus if you spray them with Pam they peel right off your muffins like nobody’s business. Maybe these things are super old and I just never knew about them? I made muffins with them tonight for the first time and seriously, I now swear by them. The coolest thing is that not only can you put them in a traditional muffin tin, but also you can (allegedly – I haven’t tried this) sit them by themselves on a regular cookie sheet and the result will be the same. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you this: will muffin-baking ever be the same?
In other news, have you ever been asked what your all-time favorite song was? I have, and I’ve never really been able to answer it until tonight when my answer came down to me from the god of iTunes shuffle. This is my answer: “Like a Prayer” by Madonna. It really just doesn’t get old for me. I wouldn’t say Madonna is my all-time favorite artist, but that song has been sitting on top of my list for at least five years now. It’s catchy and upbeat, but it doesn’t get stuck in my head. It’s singalongable. It fills me with energy. If I ever get a speeding ticket, it will be because I was listening to this song while driving.
As far as Madonna songs go, the runner up for my favor is “Express Yourself”, with honorable mention going to “Borderline”. As far as artists who have songs that give me a rush like Madonna’s do go, the runner up is – for now – Bon Jovi for such delicious adrenaline-rushes as “You Give Love A Bad Name” (is there a better first few seconds anywhere in music? I think not) and, of course, “Livin’ On A Prayer”.
In doing personal research for this mini-feature, I have noticed that iTunes has downloaded not one, not two, but ten new Lin’s Bins for me from the XRT podcasts I’ve subscribed to. Hot dog! For the uninformed, WXRT is a Chicago radio station that I listened to – thanks to the wonders of streaming radio – even when I was on the East coast because I really haven’t ever found anything better. Listen here. You’ll be glad you did?
In other news, my back hurts for no good reason and I am about to take a crowbar to the car outside my window whose alarm will not stop going off, and today may or may not be Charo’s birthday, depending on whether you trust the Dlisted birthday list or IMDb. Me, I can’t decide. I’ll just have to celebrate twice!
In other other news, life is a mystery. Everyone must stand alone. I hear you call my name, and it feels like…
yesterday after “Turpentine” was playing on the radio when I woke up, and I’ve been listening to that song ever since. Take a 
. Yes, you read that properly. I suggested that you purchase music if you like it. I think I’m part of a dwindling minority of my generation that would rather pay for music than hit up the Pirate Bay. But that is a topic for another day.
